Universal
by Crystalazer
Summary: The art that is Shinobi is universal. Drabbles of love and angst. COMPLETE.
1. Useless

**Universal: Drabbles From the Daring Mind of Crystalazer**

Wow. Lookee here. Really short things. By Crys. I must be crazy. Well...these pairings can be applied to pretty much anyone, even though I had specific ones in mind, but I'm not telling. Draw your own conclusions. Well...enjoy!

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**Disclaimer: **Naruto does not belong to me in any way, shape, or form. It's just kind of fun to write and write some more. So...read and don't think that it belongs to me. I hope we're on even ground, here.

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**Useless**

_adj. **being or having no beneficial use; futile or ineffective**_**  
**

Every scream…every flinch as her back was raked open with her own kunai, glistening with her own blood…every ragged breath that cost her another year of her life…he feels them all.

And he wishes that it was he in her place, protecting her from being hurt anymore. Yet he can do nothing…and he hates it. He has never felt so useless.

He watches them kill her slowly, reveling in her pain. He watches them smile as they kiss her bruised and battered lips, mocking her, laughing and wiping the spittle off with his hand. She hisses and bites feebly at them, refusing to submit to their demands, restrained by two thick metal chains biting into her wrist, immobilizing her healing hands. Her chakra has hit rock bottom.

"Bitch," They mutter, placing the tip of her kunai to her shoulder blade and pressing down until the bitter metal broke skin…drew blood…tore flesh…hit bone. "You'll die down here anyway. Don't resist us; we'll only kill you that much sooner."

"You might as well kill me now," She rasps, the words barely formed and hoarse with dehydration. They laugh again.

"Not until we've had our fun with you, bitch." They close the door behind them, drowning her in darkness.

He wakes up screaming.


	2. Utterly

**Universal: Drabbles From the Daring Mind of Crystalazer**

**Utterly**

_adv. **completely, absolutely, entirely**_**  
**

Luck wasn't on his side today. They sit, crying together in the darkened room. This was the worst kind of death. It was the death of one who never had a chance to live.

"Where was God today?" They ask themselves over and over. Why hadn't God spared their child, just as worthy of living as any other? It was their first, their most precious. They had pondered which parent their child would look like more. What kind of hair would he have? Whose eyes? Were they ready?

Now they will never find out.

He is proud of her. He kisses her gently on the forehead and promises her that she will be a mother and he a father. She looks into his eyes and smiles because she knows that he always keeps his promises.

--


	3. Utopia

**Universal: Drabbles From the Daring Mind of Crystalazer**

**Utopia**

_noun. **an ideally perfect place, especially in its social and moral aspects**_**  
**

"What're you doing all alone?"

She looks up with a start. He's looking at her, smiling easily with his hands in his pant pockets. For a moment, she's too shocked to speak. Her mouth opens but her voice is silenced before she can utter a sound. Suddenly realizing that she must look like such an idiot, she snaps it shut and looks away with a shy "Gomenasai…"

"What're you apologizing for?" Her eyes meet his again and she realizes that his smile had broadened considerably and that he was offering her his hand. Letting a watery smile escape, she places her quivering, cool hand into his warm, calloused one.

He leads her up and guides her towards the crowd. Her heart soars.


	4. Utensil

**Universal: Drabbles From the Daring Mind of Crystalazer**

**Utensil**

_noun. **an instrument, implement, or container used domestically**_**  
**

"…What's this?" He gingerly picks up a metal stick with four prongs on the end of it and holds it to the light, examining it with puzzled eyes.

"That's a fork," She answers, being a little more knowledgeable about the western world than he is. "It's a dining utensil they use in the west." She takes it out of his hand and picks up a piece of discarded meat, showing him the remnant of lamb chop impaled on the tines. "See?"

He's about to answer when the door is suddenly broken down as three hefty body-guards swarm into the room.

Faster than she could see, he had grabbed three more of the forks and rushed the enemies, stabbing one in the eye and lodging the other two into the throats of the other bodyguards without batting an eyelash.

Casually, he walks back across the room to where she is standing, dumbfounded. "…Pretty useful, aren't they?" Smiling slightly, they flee the dining room.


	5. Unison

**Universal: Drabbles From the Daring Mind of Crystalazer****  
**

**Unison**

_noun. **in complete agreement, harmonizing perfectly**_**  
**

_They're very alike_, he realizes. For countless years, they have fought side-by-side. They had lived and breathed in simple harmony. Their movements had become coordinated; one finishing what the other began. They became entwined within each other, their individual dreams becoming as one, and then broadening. Their future became one and the same.

Weakly, his hand finds hers and he squeezes it gently. "Wait for me," He whispers, voice fading.

"I'm here." She replies, and the barest hint of a smile crosses her face. "…Shall we go?"

"I'd rather not be late."

They will cross the threshold as one.


	6. Underneath

**Universal: Drabbles From the Daring Mind of Crystalazer****  
**

**Underneath**

_adv. **in or to a place below**_**  
**

"You know what?" She gives him a hard look; penetrating, but not a stare. When he shows no sign of response, she crosses her arms and huffs. "You are an asshole, pure and simple. You don't know how long I've tried to look underneath that stupid, stoic shell you've put up around yourself. I've been trying to find that _human _aspect of you since the day we first met, and do you know what I've found?"

He says nothing but she can see the faintest wrinkling in his forehead.

"...Not the smallest damn bit of it."

That was the first time he had ever heard her curse. She turns to go, and his instinct tells him to do the first thing that comes to his mind. He grabs her wrist and pulls her to him, just as six kunai embed themselves into the spot she had been standing a moment ago.

"Wha-what was that for?" She sputters and wrenches her wrist out of his grasp. They are now face-to-face, their noses almost touching. Her eyes are ablaze with fury and indignation.

"You've forgotten that we're still training." He replies evenly. "You ought to remember not to fall into your own traps."

"Well...well, if you'd try acting a little more like a person, I wouldn't be-" He leans forward and does something that makes her swallow her words.

"...Do I seem more like a person now?"

"It's a start."

**  
**


	7. Umpteenth

**Universal: Drabbles From the Daring Mind of Crystalazer **

**Umpteenth**

_adj. **relatively large but unspecified number**_

Every day, he asks her the same question. Every day came the same reply, though in different variation.

"Will ya? Huh, huh?"

"For the umpteenth time, _no!_"

"How about tomorrow, then?"

"We'll see."

Which means no.

And he looks so dejected that eventually, she starts feeling a little bit of pity for him. And every day, that pity grows and grows until one day, she realizes that she really would like to say "yes" for once; just to make him happy.

He doesn't say a word the next day. Their sensei arrives; the mission commences, and ends. Still, he hasn't popped the question. It's just them two now, and the silence is becoming increasingly awkward.

"See you tomorrow," He smiles, waves, and is about to leave when she opens her mouth.

"Wait! Hey…D'you want to go to that restaurant you're always telling me about?"

And seeing him smile made being the one to ask worth it.


	8. Uber

**Universal: Drabbles From the Daring Mind of Crystalazer **

**Uber**

_adj. **ultimate**_**  
**

Oh, how she hates him! She fumes each day, acutely aware of the way he looks at her, and finds every opportunity to snap at him. He never reacts the way she expects him too, and maybe that's the most annoying part of it.

She remembers that as a child still in the academy, the word that every kid spoke was "uber." If someone, usually Naruto, was pestering someone, he would be described as "uber annoying." If Sasuke did particularly well in something, which, of course he did, every girl would squeal, "He's so uber-cool!" _He, _of course, was the only one who had never said it before. He was always out of the loop, and he didn't care. The 'not-caring' part irks her to no end.

Today, they're training in Arena 12 and it seems like she and Sensei are the only ones taking things seriously. He captured her in his technique again and lets her go a second later, telling her that she needs to pay more attention to her surroundings.

That was the last straw for her. Stomping her foot on the dry, hard-packed earth, she screeches, "You are just so uber annoying!"

Sensei raises an eyebrow. He turns to look at her and she can see no trace of emotion in his face. It's quiet for about a split-second. Then the edges of his lips twitch. He chuckles.

"I try." He replies, and all her anger melts away.


	9. Understanding

**Universal: Drabbles From the Daring Mind of Crystalazer**

**Understanding  
**_Dedicated to Wildcatt for her endearing awesomeness (this pairing's for you!)  
_

_verb. **to perceive and comprehend the nature and significance of**  
_

Understanding a genius is difficult. There's an unspoken rule that geniuses set the standard for everyone else; it's a rule she doesn't understand. He's aloof and indifferent. Everyone admires him, loves but hates him, speaks of him every minute of every day.

She walks by the academy three times a week. The children all want to be him; to surpass him. It's impossible. They're not geniuses…if they were, they would have graduated already, would have already made their names in the ninja world. Like he has.

She wonders how much of a genius is human compared to how much is obedience, priority, pride, and excellence. And even more, underneath all those things…how much is blood, sweat, and tears? She'll never know, because when you're a genius, you keep those things to yourself. You close your doors to the outside world. You don't need them. They don't need you.

Understanding a genius is difficult. Being one must be even harder.

--


	10. Undulation

**Universal: Drabbles From the Daring Mind of Crystalazer **

**Undulation**

_noun. **a gentle rising and falling in the manner of waves**_**  
**

He returns home late that night. She is already asleep when he pushes open the bedroom door of their tiny apartment. There's a slightly crumpled magazine next to her, an indication that she tried to wait for him. He's glad she's not awake to see him like this, tired and broken and still hearing the dying screams of the twenty-six people he's killed tonight. They ring dully in his ear, and he's flinched more than once at the climax of their shrieks of agony in the last few hours.

Shrugging off his dirty, blood-drenched uniform, he climbs into bed with her, taking extra care not to make excessive noise or movement. She's always been a light sleeper, so that didn't help much.

Their faces are so close together that he can feel her even breath on his skin. It's hot and comforting, and he must the sudden urge to take her in his arms and hold her against him and cry and make the voices go away for one night. This is how it is each night and this will have to be enough. He keeps her in rhythm, and she keeps him sane.


	11. Umber

**Universal: Drabbles from the Daring Mind of Crystalazer**

**Umber  
**_adj. **having an earthly color**  
_

"Shit," He mutters, "just…shit." There isn't really a better word to describe their situation. The sky is gray. The forest is burning. He's running out of options. She's dying.

"Come on, come on." He forces himself to think. He's spent so very many years as a shinobi, seen so many deaths of so many that he held dear. He wanted to prevent this one, was going to prevent this one.

Tearing away his porcelain mask, he crushes his lips to hers, trying to put breath back in her lungs and life in her eyes, refusing to let her become like the trees. She was the only one left in this futile war.

Distantly he remembers an oath he made to himself, that he would never again let anyone grow close to him, but it was a broken oath. The moment she entered his life, she broke through to his heart. In the first time they touched to their first dance to their first kiss to the first time she found herself in his bed one stormy night, she became the person he would swear a new, unspoken oath to. And finally, he knows what that oath is.

It was an oath that she would be the one that he would give his life to protect. Ashes to ashes. His life was now worth double, because he was nothing without her. He would not let her die. There was already too much smoke in the forest.


	12. Umbrella

**Universal: Drabbles from the Daring Mind of Crystalazer**

**Umbrella  
**_noun. **something that covers or protects**_

"Come inside." She has never seen him this way. It is impossible to approach him. She is so afraid that he is on the verge of breaking down completely.

There is no answer. She did not expect one but she steps aside to allow him passage. He makes it two steps inside her apartment and crumples.

--

As they lay in her bed, she scared and unable to prevent herself from trembling and he feverishly pale and his body shaking, his fraility is, to her, a living nightmare. He has never been the weak one, never the one who has to be saved. His skin is sticky with a mixture of cold sweat and rainwater and she is huddled up against him, lending her body heat because frankly, he needs it so much more than she does. His clothes are soaking in her bathtub at the moment so that the blood doesn't stain his uniform. Her clothes are draped over a chair because he doesn't need to be wetter than he already is.

She doesn't know if he can pull through it and for the first time, her faith in him sways just the slightest bit. His eyes are closed but hers are still open because she can't sleep knowing that he is on the verge of death from fatigue and mental scarring from the too many that died at his hands today. He cannot die before she does, but when he utters her name, still only half conscious, she could only press closer to him and pray that she could give enough.


	13. Universal

**Universal: Drabbles from the Daring Mind of Crystalazer**

**Universal  
**_adj. _Of, relating to, extending to, or affecting the entire world or all within the world

The art that is Shinobi is universal. It is a dance of the most graceful death, a song of harmonic sacrifices, a play in which both acts end in tragedy. It is a watercolor of muted reds, both before and after blood is spilt. It is a sculpture of what once was flesh turned to stone.

It possesses a terrible beauty; something one cannot help but marvel at. Like a tree as its branches reach for the sky at dusk, a living statue, it soon loses its innocence at the peak of its flower.

Each time metal comes in contact with flesh, it is the beginning of a great symphony, the movement and footfalls of the opponent as the rhythm, the pulses of chakra and voices as the melody, the clang of weapon against weapon as the harmony and the heartbeats of flesh and bone and mind keeps the whole ensemble going.

And suddenly, the story has ended, the last page left blank. It represents everything we are, our sins, our virtues, our hopes, our fears, that of whom we live for, our births, deaths, and rebirths. For the art that is Shinobi is universal. 


	14. End Note and Pairings

**Universal: Drabbles From the Daring Mind of Crystalazer**

**Pairings for Universal **

**Useless: **Any pairing involving a female medic

**Utterly: **Naruto and Sakura

**Utopia: **Naruto and Hinata

**Utensil: **Naruto and Sakura / Sasuke and Sakura / Neji and Tenten

**Unison: **Neji and Tenten

**Underneath: **Neji and Tenten

**Uber: **Shikamaru and Ino

**Umpteenth: **Naruto and Sakura / Chouji and Ino (if you're creative)

**Understanding: **Neji and Tenten / Sasuke and Sakura

**Undulation: **Kakashi and Rin ('cause I'm a die-hard xD)

**Umber: **Kakashi and Rin ('cause again, I'm a die-hard.)

**Umbrella: **Stoic male character + self-sacrificing female character (take your pick)

**Universal: **No real pairings

So…thanks for the memories. It's been fun, writing these little snapshots of shinobi-life. These are the pairings I had in mind when I was writing them, although I figure you can think of more that fit. In my mind's eye, all the characters are older than they are in the canon right now, 'cept for the Kakashi and Rin pairings, in which they're younger.

If you haven't gotten the point of this series yet, it's to find a bunch of words starting with "U" and seeing how much I can do with them. "U" isn't a very well used letter, so now it gets some credit. Thirteen drabbles was a good place to stop, I think.

Anyhow, I'll be starting a new series of drabbles soon, so stay posted, neh?

_Love it? Hate it? I'll never know unless you **review!**_


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